At the Pontiac Transportation Museum, the docents can tell you where each of the more than 70 vehicles under its roof were made. Chances are, they’ll say something along the lines of, “Half a mile up the road.”
The museum launched with a soft opening on May 16 but plans to host a grand opening — with live music, food trucks, special guests and a ribbon-cutting ceremony — on Saturday, just west of downtown Pontiac at 250 W. Pike St.
The Pontiac Transportation Museum tells Michigan stories. It set up shop in what was formerly a Pontiac public elementary school, of which Dana Whitmer, Gretchen Whitmer’s grandfather, was the district superintendent. The museum has cars built and driven by Michiganders, with exhibits telling the industrial, economic and automotive history of the state.
With 170 years of Michigan automotive history thrumming through the place, museum board chair Terry Connolly, a former Pontiac Motors engineer, said he hopes it can inspire some pride in residents.
“I don’t think Pontiac has told its story yet,” Connolly said. “I want every schoolkid here to be proud of their city, their history.”
But the museum is intended to appeal to more than Pontiac residents. Despite not having an official opening, the museum has already brought in 3,000 visitors from more than 40 states and nine different countries. The trend set during the soft opening told Connolly that the museum has an important place in Michigan's heritage tourism industry.
He hopes this trend can continue into the grand opening, but not because it will make the museum profitable. He doesn’t expect that.
“This is not going to make a lot of money. That’s the nature of museums,” Connolly said. “The people making money will be restaurants and businesses downtown.”
(Nearly) all the vehicles built in Pontiac
The museum team’s goal is to make just enough money to open up what organizers call “phase two” and “phase three” of the museum after rehabilitating the old school building. As it stands now, the museum is just in phase one. This first stage was funded by a grassroots operation, Connolly said, with a little bit of public money. Connolly estimated that a majority of the funding — approximately 80% — came from grassroots support and individual donations, coupled with a $100,000 grant from Oakland County Commissioners .
Through the city’s history, Connolly said, 47 different brands rolled cars off the line in Pontiac. The goal is to have one of each, and organizers are close.
Among the amalgamation of Pontiac-adjacent vehicles are Cartercars; the only two Olympian vehicles known to exist; a Rapid truck; plenty of Oaklands; a rare Vixen RV, and even a Vauxhall Victor — a British car — that was pieced together in Pontiac.
From sporty to quirky, the museum has a car for everyone to marvel at. For Connolly, it’s hard to pick a favorite.
“It’s like asking which one of my kids is my favorite,” Connolly said.
Building the community
The museum has a deeper goal than showing off the art-deco, wicked-cool, chromed-out cars of Pontiac’s past — the goal is to have a hand in Pontiac’s future.
Along with traditional museum programming, Connolly said organizers plan to have STEM and automotive science programming in the future to build the next generation of automotive engineers. Leaders hope to collaborate with local schools, from Oakland University to Pontiac elementary schools.
The museum already has collaborated with local colleges on geomapping the roads and the history of Pontiac production, and Connolly believes that the collection can offer insight into the automotive world.
For example, one of the only cars on-site that was not made in Pontiac is a 1980 Renault ‘Lectric Leopard, a goofy old attempt at a dependable electric car. However, the car can be used as a hands-on learning tool for students to learn about EVs, Connolly said.
In the 55,000-square-foot former school, development plans include opening a research library, classrooms and restoration spaces for cars. Again, to Connolly, it’s about inspiring some pride in Pontiac.
“You’d like as a schoolkid to be proud of where you live and why you live there,” Connolly said. “I think that we can deliver that.”
Telling the Pontiac story
Commerce resident Jim Snideman, 66, a docent at the museum, has been a car guy since he was 5 years old. Snideman worked for Pontiac in the 1980s, his family worked for Pontiac and he grew up around the area.
Years ago, he visited the Pontiac Oakland Auto Museum in Pontiac, Illinois. That city holds no real connection to Pontiac Motors, but an enthusiast, Tim Dye, opened a museum there in 2010.
Snideman loved it, but wondered why there wasn’t a proper Pontiac museum in Pontiac, Michigan.
Now there is one, and as Snideman walked around the dimly-lit back rooms of the Pontiac Transportation Museum among the curvy fenders and patinaed, 100-year-old vehicles, he said, “I have more fun than I could imagine.”
Connolly said the museum tracks vehicular history, but it also tells broader stories of American history. Pontiac Motors — like many automotive manufacturers in the Detroit area — stepped up to be part of Franklin Roosevelt’s Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, building complicated antiaircraft weaponry. The women of Pontiac, too — the “Rosies” — worked together during wartime to meet production requirements for a country at war.
As the Pontiac Transportation Museum aims to become a fixture of the city with its grand opening on Saturday, its message is simple, and it’s rooted in the city.
“We want Pontiac people to be really proud of the legacy they left the world,” Connolly said.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Pontiac Transportation Museum opens Saturday with vintage cars and local history
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